Refugee says concerns about bugs, rodents brushed off by Manitoba Housing
'Now I have a miserable life. That's what I feel,' says Wegdan Hamad, who fled to Canada in 2008
A family who came to Canada as refugees nearly a decade ago say they feel trapped in an insect- and mouse-infested Manitoba Housing rental suite.
Despite the threats to their safety her family faced in Sudan, Wegdan Hamad sometimes longs for the living conditions in her homeland she says were far better than where she now lives in Winnipeg.
Hamad, her four children and her husband arrived in Canada in 2008 as refugees. In 2010, after initial settlement supports ended, they moved into a Manitoba Housing apartment on Langside Street.
They still live there today because, Hamad said, they can't afford to live anywhere else.
Mice, then cockroaches and bedbugs
Hamad said problems in her suite began the week they moved in. She spotted mice darting across the linoleum floor of their three-bedroom apartment.
"Still, we have them all the time. Back and forth. Back and forth."
In 2013, bedbugs and cockroaches arrived, she said. Regular visits from the exterminator have made little difference. A few weeks pass after the spraying and the bugs come back, Hamad said.
Sticky pads CBC saw in her apartment looked like miniature insectariums.
Of even greater concern to Hamad is that her husband developed allergy-like symptoms that would not go away, and one of her sons now has asthma. She blames both conditions on the frequent pesticide treatments.
"I talked to Manitoba Housing about it but nobody cares," she said.
A spokesperson for Manitoba Housing said in an email to CBC the agency "takes pest issues seriously" and officials "recognize these situations can be stressful for our tenants."
The agency said this month, 13 units out of the 53 in Hamad's building have bedbugs and a total of 18 are slated for treatment.
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"If rodent activity is confirmed in a building, bait stations will be placed in units and will be checked three times over 30 days to monitor for these pests," said the spokesperson.
A walk through Hamad's apartment seemed to provide confirmation. On Thursday, she showed CBC a dead mouse she found behind her couch and mouse droppings in her empty kitchen cabinets.
She can smell mouse urine in her 12-year-old daughter's bedroom.
"Nobody cares at all. That's what I feel. That's why I have to ask people to help me," Hamad said.
'It's not easy to settle'
Gail Fishman, the principal of the school where Hamad is taking classes to improve her English language skills, is helping to advocate for the family. She has written to the minister responsible for Manitoba Housing, Scott Fielding, and the MLA for the area, Rob Altemeyer, asking for help.
The efforts have so far yielded a meeting with Altemeyer, an Opposition member, who promised to speak out for the family.
"It makes me very sad to hear that people who are fleeing third-world countries and are being welcomed into Canada are living in a tortured situation," said Fishman.
She said Manitoba Housing does not take Hamad's concerns seriously.
"They tried to normalize the situation to me — like everyone has this happening, everyone in Manitoba Housing lives in these conditions," Fishman said.
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Since Hamad was laid off from a cleaning job three years ago, her family has survived on government assistance.
Rent is too high in the private rental market and work opportunities are few and far between, she said. One of the reasons Hamad is taking English courses is to improve her job options so her family can afford a better place to live one day.
"I don't have option. I'm looking for option.… It's not easy to settle, you know."
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